MEMORIAL 

OF 

THE  INHABITANTS 

OF 

THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK. 


MARCH  21,  1806. 

Referred  to  the  committee  of  the  whole  house  on  the  state 

of  the  union. 


CITY  OF  WASHINGTON :  ■ 

A.  &  G.  WAT,  PRINTERS. 


1806, 


JAWOM3M 


Avery  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library 
Gift  of  Seymour  B.  Durst  Old  York  Library 


MEMORIAL. 


To  the  senate  and  house  of  representatives  of 
the  United  States,  in  congress  assembled. 

THE   MEMORIAL    OF    THE    INHABITANTS   OF  THE 
CITY  OF  NEW-YORK, 

RESPECTFULLT  SHEWEfH, 

THAT  your  memorialists,  in  common  with 
their  fellow  citizens  throughout  the  United  States,  are 
alarmed  at  the  threatening  aspect  of  public  affairs,  and, 
in  addition  to  the  general  solicitude,  are  particularly 
impressed  by  the  sense  of  immediate  danger.  Trust- 
ing that  the  wisdom  of  government  would  consider 
the  port  of  New  York  as  of  primary  importance,  your 
memorialists  were  in  tranquil  expectation  that  season- 
able provision  would  be  made  for  its  security.  Re- 
lying, also,  as  they  ought,  on  the  assurances  of  peace, 
repeatedly  given;  concurring  in  the  opinion,  that  it 
was  of  the  utmost  consequence  to  pay  the  national 
debt,  and  rejoiced  to  learn,  that  by  adhering  to  jus- 
tice in  our  foreign  relations,  and  to  economy  in  our 
domestic  concerns,  we  could  meet  the  public  exi- 
gencies and  command  the  respect  of  foreign  nations, 
they  shut  their  ears  to  every  suggestion  of  doubt, 
difficulty  or  danger.  They  mean  not  now  to  ex- 
press diffidence  in  the  public  councils  ;  but  when  they 
view  the  property  collected  in  their  city,  and  its  de- 
fenceless condition,  they  are  compelled  to  intreat  the 
attention  of  government. 


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Your  memorialists  say,  with  no  vain  exultation,  but 

with  anxious  concern,  that  New  York  may  be  consi- 
dered as  the  emporium  of  American  commerce.  The 
general  sense  of  its  natural  advantages  will  appear 
from  the  unparalleled  increase  of  population,  by  the 
establishment  of  useful  citizens  from  every  state,  and 
from  the  extent  of  its  domestic  trade.  In  either  view 
of  the  subject,  New  York  is  as  well  the  common 
property  and  concern  of  the  union  as  of  its  own  par- 
ticular citizens.  The  produce  of  other  states  finds 
there  a  valuable  market,  and  there  also,  is  to  be  found 
a  cheap  and  ready  supply  of  foreign  commodities. 
Tobacco,  rice,  cotton  and  naval  stores,  from  the 
southern,  as  well  as  salted  provisions,  ashes  and  furs, 
from  the  northern  states,  are  among  the  exports  of 
New  York.  For,  the  facility  with  which  assorted 
cargoes  can  be  procured  for  ports  where  large  quanti- 
ties of  a  single  article  would  not  find  a  market,  ena- 
bles an  intelligent  merchant  to  give  the  cultivators  of 
those  states  an  advanced  price  for  their  produce.  And 
in  like  manner,  nearly  half  of  the  five  eastern  states 
and  New  Jersey,  and  no  inconsiderable  part  of  the 
four  southern  states,  find  it  most  convenient  and  ad- 
vantageous to  supply  themselves  at  New  York  with 
articles  of  foreign  growth  and  manufacture.  Thus 
the  large  capital  accumulated  by  the  successful  labor 
of  your  memorialists,  is  poured  through  a  thousand 
channels,  ministering  to  the  convenience,  supplying 
the  wants  and  gratifying  the  wishes  of  their  fellow 
citizens  in  every  part  of  the  union. 

In  the  conviction  that  New  York  is  to  be  consi- 
dered as  the  political  centre  of  this  widely  extended 
dominion,  Great  Britain  collected  in  it  her  main  force 
during  the  war  of  our  independence ;  and  the  same 
conviction  would  probably  lead  any  other  foe  to  take 
possession  of  it,  or  to  lay  it  in  ashes,  according  to  his 
means  and  views,  whether  contemplating  with  ade- 
quate force,  a  permanent  conquest,  or,  at  inferior  ex- 
pense, a  diminution  of  the  national  resources.  And 


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even  supposing  that  it  should  escape  public  hostility, 
still  the  property  it  contains,  and  the  facility  with 
which  it  may  be  assailed,  point  it  out  as  the  object  of 
predatory  warfare. 

Your  memorialists  are  far  from  arraigning  the  wis- 
dom of  measures  which  government  has  already 
adopted,  or  may  now  contemplate;  neither  do  they 
pretend  to  know  the  exigencies  or  resources  of  the 
country.  But  while  they  express  their  willingness  to 
bear  such  burdens,  as  it  may  be  thought  proper  to  im- 
pose, they  conceive  it  their  duty  to  represent,  that-if 
the  acquisition  of  new  territory  is  contemplated,  and 
the  condition  of  the  country  will  not  enable  the  go- 
vernment to  accomplish,  both  that  object,  and  provide 
for  the  defence  of  our  principal  sea  ports,  it  is  the  dic- 
tate not  only  of  wisdom,  but  of  justice,  to  prefer  the 
security  of  those  places  from  whence  the  revenue  is 
drawn,  to  expending  it  on  remote  objects  of  less  im- 
portance. 

Placed  in  a  situation,  where,  as  well  from  their  re- 
lations to  the  whole  empire,  as  from  the  accumulations 
of  their  own  industry,  their  property,  their  persons, 
and  what  is  still  more  dear,  their  wives  and  children, 
are  exposed  to  peril  and  outrage ;  while  the  revenue 
drawn  from  them  in  a  single  year,  might,  if  properly 
applied,  provide  for  permanent  defence;  if  your  me- 
morialists could,  in  submissive  silence,  suppress  the 
feelings  which  arise  out  of  their  condition,  they  must 
be  more  or  less  than  men. 

Strong  in  the  consciousnesss  of  right,  and  in  the 
sentiment  of  freedom ;  convinced  that  they  have  per- 
formed towards  the  union  all  the  duties  of  faithful  ci- 
tizens, they  claim,  in  return,  the  performance  of  that 
great  duty  of  government,  protection. 

With  the  utmost  respect  for  the  legislature  of  the 
union,  and  confiding  in  their  wisdom  and  justice,  your 
memorialists,  therefore,  entreat  your  attention  to  the 
importance  of  their  situation  and  the  dangers  to  which 
they  are  exposed,  and  they  humbly  pray,  that  per- 


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manent  defences  for  the  city  and  port  of  New  York, 
may  be  speedily  commenced,  on  a  scale  that  will  in- 
sure protection,  against  national  hostility ;  and,  as  a 
security  against  predatory  incursions,  that  this  harbour 
may  be  made  the  station  of  such  ships  of  war,  as  are 
not  otherwise  employed. 

And  your  memorialists,  &c. 

Signed  on  behalf  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  second  ward  of  the 
city  of  New  York,  in  virtue  of  their  resolves  at  a  meeting 
held  at  the  Union  hotel  the  14th  day  of  March,  1806,  pursu- 
ant to  a  recommendation  of  the  common  council  of  the  said 
city, 

ELIAS  NEXSEN,  Chairman. 
JOHN  W.  MULLIGAN,  Sec'ry. 


http://archive.org/details/memorialofinhabiOOdurs 


